The impact of offshoring on the evolution of the IT workforce within the UK

There is a growing concern over the offshoring of jobs to organisations in developing countries, particularly as we are now starting to lose high-wage knowledge jobs that may potentially impact the future of the UK IT sector. In this paper, we examine some of the issues surrounding offshoring, present case studies of some organisations with different experiences and views of offshoring and investigate what it may mean to the IT sector of the future within the UK. There are three main findings: (1) Future skills required by UK IT professionals will present a major lifestyle change for many parts of the IT workforce. (2) While it may be irrational to create artificial political or organisational barriers to restrict offshoring, the UK Government needs a holistic strategy for the UK IT sector to position itself for future competitive advantage or risk losing a prized high technology industry to developing countries. (3) There is universal agreement that Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) will play a major role in developing the supply of skills needed for the UK to compete globally in the future and that there is a clear need for government policy and business to inform educational directions.